
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 700 511 6 



Life and Character 



(JfaffhI QFOPgF 35* ^iDraas* 



Gen. James A. Garfield. 



O RAT 1 O N 



Life and Character 



GEN. GEORGE H. THOMAS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Society of the Army of the Cumberland 



BY 



GEN. JAMES A. GARFIELD 



FOURTH ANNUAL REUNION 

CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 25, 1870 



laA-j '■ •' ' » • ■" ' ^ ' ' 



CINCINNATI 

Robert Clarke & Co 
1871 



^ SSJ^ 



'CI 



■ ! 



OEATION". 



The Life and Character of 



GENERAL GEORGE H. THOMAS. 



Comrades of the Army of the Cumberland : 

In obedience to your order, I arise to discharge, as best I 
may, the most honorable and the most difficult duty which it 
was possible for you to assign me. You have required me 
to exhibit, in fitting terms, the character and career of George 
H. Thomas. 

I approach the theme with the deepest reverence, but with 
the painful consciousness of my inability to do it even ap- 
proximate justice. 

There are now living not less than two hundred thousand 
men who served under the eye of General Thomas; who saw 
him in sunshine and storm — on the march, in the fight, and on 
the field when the victory had been won. Enshrined in the 
hearts of all these, are enduring images and most precious 
memories of their commander and friend. Who shall collect 
and unite into one worthy picture, the bold outlines, the in- 
numerable lights and shadows which make up the life and 
character of our great leader? Who shall condense into a 



Life and Character of 



single hour, the record of a life which forms so large a chapter 
of the nation's history, and whose fame fills and overfills a 
hemisphere? Ifo line can be omitted, no false stroke made, no 
imperfect sketching done, which you, his soldiers, will not in- 
stantly detect and deplore. I know that each of you here 
present, sees him in memory at this moment, as w'e often 
saw in life; erect and strong, like a tower of solid masonry; 
his broad, square shoulders and massive head; his abundant 
hair and full beard of light brown, sprinkled with silver; his 
broad forehead, full face, and features that would appear 
colossal, but for their perfect harmony of proportion ; his 
clear complexion, with just enough color to assure you of 
robust health and a well-regulated life; his face lighted up by 
an eye which was cold gray to his enemies, but warm, deep blue 
to his friends; not a man of iron, but of live oak. His atti- 
tude, form and features all assured you of inflexible firmness, 
of inexpugnable strength ; while his welcoming smile set 
every feature aglow with a kindness that won your manliest 
affection. If thus in memory you see his form and features, 
even more vividly do you remember the qualities of his mind 
and heart. His body was the fitting type of his intellect and 
character; and you saw^ both his intellect and character tried, 
again and again, in the fiery furnace of war, and by other 
tests not less searching. Thus, Comrades, you see him; and 
your memories supply a thousand details, which complete and 
adorn the picture. I beg you, therefore, to supply the de- 
ficiency of ray work from these living prototypes in your own 
hearts. 

No human life can be measured by an absolute standard. 
In this world, all is relative. Character itself is the result of 
innumerable influences, from without and from within, which 
act unceasingly through life. Who shall estimate the effect 
of those latent forces enfolded in the spirit of a new-born 



General George H. Thomas. 



child — forces that may date back centuries and find their 
origin in the life, and thought, and deeds of remote ancestors — 
forces, the germs of which, enveloped in the awful mystery 
of life, have been transmitted silently from generation to gen- 
eration, and never perish ! All cherishing nature, provident 
and unforgetting, gathers up all these fragments, that nothing 
may be lost, but that all may ultimately reappear in new com- 
binations. Each new life is thus the "heir of all the ages," 
the possessor of qualities which only the events of life can un- 
fold. The problems to be solved in the study of human life 
and character are therefore these : Given the character of a 
man, and the conditions of life around him, what will be his 
career? Or, given his career and surroundings, what was his 
character? Or, given his character and career, of what kind 
were his surroundings? The relation of these three factors to 
each other is severely logical. From them is deduced all 
genuine history. Character is the chief element, for it is both 
a result and a cause — a result of influences and a cause of 
results. 

Each of these elements in the career of General Thomas 
throws light on the others; for throughout his life, whether 
we consider causes or results, there appears a harmony of 
proportion, both logical and beautiful, which can spring only 
from a genuine soul, true to itself, and, therefore, false to 
none. 

From the meager materials at our command, it appears 
that he was of Welsh descent on his father's side: thousrh his 
ancestors resided for some time in England before they crossed 
the sea. Both physically and intellectually. General Thomas 
bore unmistakable marks of that sturdy Cumbrian character 
which, for four centuries, defied the conquering arms of liome, 
and which preserves to this day, in a small corner of Great 
Britain, a language, literature, and body of traditions all its 



Life and Character of 



own. On his mother's side he was of French origin; she hav- 
ing descended from the Rochelles, a Huguenot family that fled 
from the oppression of Louis XIV., to find an asykim in the 
New World. Few elements ever mingled in our national 
life that added such purity and brilliancy as that which the 
religious wars of the sixteenth century sent to us from France; 
and it would be difficult to form a happier combination than 
the honest solidity of the Welsh, joined to the genial vivacity 
of the French. 

Both branches of Thomas' family settled in Southeastern 
Virginia, in the early days of that colony, and became 
thoroughly imbued with the American spirit. 

His own birthplace and home was in that region of South- 
ampton county, Virginia, which forms the water-shed between 
the James river and the streams that flow into Albemarle 
Sound. Southampton, like many of the counties in that 
region, was named by the colonists in memory of their old 
English home. 

George Henry Thomas was born on the 31st of July 
1816. We know but little of his early boyhood, beyond the 
fact that it was passed in a happy country home, in the society 
of brothers and sisters, and under the direction of cultivated, 
parents, who ranked among the most respectable and influen- 
tial of Virginia farmers. One class of influences is specially 
worthy of notice. There was much in the surroundings of a 
young Virginian at that time to make him justly proud of his 
own State. The glorious part she had borne in the war of 
independence, and in that noble statesmanship which produced 
the Constitution and Government of the Republic, was not 
forgotten by her young men. But much more could be said 
of Virginia. When Thomas was eighteen years of age, the 
Constitution of the United States had been in force forty-flve 
years; and during that period Virginia had held the Presi- 



General George H. Thomas. 



dency thirty-two years, had filled the office of Secretary of 
State for more than twenty years, and had given to the ITation 
its greatest Chief Justice for thirty-four years. 

These honorable evidences of leadership gave peculiar sig- 
nificance and popularity to the doctrine of a great Virginia 
statesman, embodied in the now sadly-famous resolutions of 
1798, in which Virginia put forth the theory that the National 
Constitution was a compact between the several States, and 
that each State, in its own sovereign right, was the final judge 
of any violation of the Constitution, and also of the measure 
and mode of redress. During the first quarter of this century, 
Virginia did not see that the inevitable logic of this theory 
was, first, ISTullification, and finally Secession. She saw in it 
only a safeguard against possible aggression on the part of the 
National Government or her sister States. It was gratifying 
to tlie pride of her citizens, to look upon their proud State as 
a virgin queen, foremost in founding a great republic, and 
nobly supporting it by her sovereign will. We shall never do 
full justice to the conduct of Virginians in the late war with- 
out making full allowance for the influence of these resolutions 
of 1798. 

When Thomas harl reached the age of twenty, and had 
made some progress in the study of the law, his family secured 
him an appointment as cadet at the Military Academy at West 
Point. He entered in 1836; and, after a thorough and solid 
rather than a brilliant course, he graduated in 1840, ranking 
twelfth in a class of forty-two members, among whom were 
Sherman, Ewell, Jordan, Getty, Herbert, Kingsbury, Van 
Vliet, and others, who afterward attained celebrity. As a 
cadet, he was distinguished for what Bacon has called " round- 
about common sense " rather than for genius, and for the pos- 
session of an honest, sturdy nature that accomplished what- 



Life and Character of 



ever he undertook by thorough, intelligent, persistent, hard 
work. 

Assigned to duty on the day of graduation as second lieu- 
tenant of the Third Artillery, he served in the R^^ular Army 
for twenty years, during which time he rendere 1 honorable 
and faithful service in the Florida war from 1810 to 1842 ; in 
command of various forts and barracks from 1842 to 1845 ; in 
the military occupation of Texas in 1845-46; in the Mexican 
war from 1846 to 1848, participating in the battle of Buena 
Vista and in nearly all the operations of General Taylor's 
army; in the Seminole war in 1849-50 ; as instructor in artil- 
lery and cavalry at West Point from 1851 to 1854; on frontier 
duty at various posts in the interior of California and Texas, 
leading several expeditions against the Indians from 1855 to 
the autumn of 1860. During these twenty years he was 
repeatedly brevetted for gallant" and meritorious services, and 
rose through all the grades to a captaincy of artillery ; and in 
1855 was made a major of the Second Cavalry, which regi- 
ment he commanded for three years. He was wounded in a 
skirmish with the Indians, at the head-waters of the Brazos 
river, in August, I860; and, in the following November, went 
East on a leave of absence. 

Here let us pause, on the threshold of the great events 
then impending, and inquire what manner of man Thomas 
had become. He was forty-four years of age; had walked for 
nearly a quarter of a century, steadily and uncomplainingly, in 
the rugged paths of a soldier's life; had made himself com- 
plete master of all the details of his profession ; had honored 
every station he had occupied ; was in turn honored by 
his Government and his comrades; and was held in peculiar 
honor by the people of his own State. Virginia had presented 
him a splendid sword, as a recognition of his high quali- 
ties and gallant conduct in the Mexican war ; and the proud 



General George H. Thomas. 



aristocracy of Southampton, to which his family belonged, 
esteemed him a bright ornament of their society. He had 
scarc&ly reached home, when the fearful portents of the 
storm began to appear. Sharing in the traditional sentiment 
of the army that a soldier should take no part in politics, he 
had never identified himself with any political party, and prob- 
ably had never cast a vote. But we have no reason to doubt 
that he shared in the general sentiments of Virginia, and dep- 
recated any agitation which should disturb her social institu- 
tions. During the winter of 1860-61, he watched with painful 
anxiety the culmination of that conflict of opinion which pre- 
ceded the war ; and he regarded the growing political strife 
as a measureless outrage, in which both contestants were 
wrong, but in which Northern agitators were the first aggress- 
ors. The teachings of the Constitution and laws, relatino- to 
the subject matter of the contest, were sadly obscured by the 
legal subtleties then employed to defend, or apologize for, a dis- 
solution of the Union. The President had declared in his 
annual message to Congress, December 4, 1860, that " the 
Constitution confers upon Congress no power to coerce into 
submission a State that is attempting to withdraw from the 
Union," . . . and that " the sword was not placed in the 
hands of Congress to preserve the Union by force." To the 
officers of the army, this official declaration of their Command- 
er-in-Chief amounted to a decree that should their States 
secede, neither he nor they could do any lawful military act to 
prevent it. They had a right to regard this decree, while it 
remained unrevoked, as an order for the regulation of their 
conduct. 

Before the middle of February, 1861, seven States had 
passed ordinances of secession ; the Confederate Government 
was actually set up at Montgomery; Southern leaders de- 
clared the Union lawfully and permanently dissolved, and 



lo Life and Character of 

that there would be no war. Looking back from our present 
standpoint, we can hardly understand how widespread was the 
opinion, both North and South, that the Union was gone, and 
the Government was powerless to restore it. To an officer of 
the army the situation was painful and perplexing to the last 
degree. Dissolution of the Union without war, would carry 
with it the inevitable dissolution of the army ; and, besides 
the shame and humiliation which an officer must feel at the 
ruin of a nation whose honor he had so long defended in 
arms, he saw that he must look about him for some new pur- 
suit \i^ which to earn his bread. What will Thomas do? 
What path will he mark out for his own feet to follow through 
this bewildering maze? His State had not yet seceded ; but her 
heart was on fire, and no one knew how far she would go, nor 
how many would follow her in the work of ruin. 

Let us consider more closely his surroundings. He was 
a major of the Second Cavalry, a regiment organized in 1855 
by Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War, out of the elite of the 
Army. Either by accident or design, three-fourths of its 
officers were from the slave States. Its roster [see Ap- 
pendix A], as printed in the Army Register of 1860, shows 
a list of names now widely notorious in the history of the 
war. Albert Sidney Johnston was its colonel, Robert E. Lee 
its lieutenant colonel, and W. J. Hardee its senior major. 
Among its captains and lieutenants, were Van Dorn, Kirby 
Smith, Jenifer, Hood, and Fitzhugh Lee. More than one- 
third of its officers afterward became rebel generals, and others 
held less conspicuous rank in the same service. 

The regiment had served for five years on the Indian 
frontier ; and its officers, thus remote from the social and polit- 
ical centers, had lived on terms of the closest official and per- 
sonal intimacy. It is difficult to overestimate the combined 
influence of these brilliant and cultivated men upon the senti- 



General George H. Thomas. ii 

ments and conduct of each. We have seen already, how strong 
were the influences of family, neighborhood, and early life that 
bound Thomas to his State. All these were now thrown vio- 
lently into the Southern scale. Beside the fact that his wife 
was a patriotic Northern lady, there was scarcely a counter- 
vailing force in the whole circle of his domestic and social life. 
Given these facts and the impending conflict, what will be the 
conduct of a man possessing clear perceptions, high character, 
and real nerve ? He would be less than a man who could 
choose his path without the keenest suffering. Only a man 
of the highest type could comprehend all, suffer all, and, reso- 
lutely striking through the manifold entanglements of the 
problem, follow, with steady eye and unfaltering step, the high- 
est duty. While the contest was confined to the politicians, 
and found expression only in constitutional theories and legal 
subtleties, the wisest might well be perplexed. But the 
flash of the first gun revealed to the clear intellect of Thomas 
the whole character and spirit of the controversy ; and his 
choice was made in an instant. Relinquishing the remainder 
of his leave of absence, he reported for duty at Carlisle Bar- 
racks, Pa., on the 14th of April, the day that our flag went 
down at Sumter, and less than forty-eight hours after the first 
shot was fired. 

His regiment, betrayed in Texas by the treachery of Gen- 
eral Twiggs, had come North to be reorganized and equipped ; 
and he entered at once upon the work. Three days after his 
arrival at Carlisle, by fraud and intrigue in her convention, 
Virginia resolved herself out of the Union ; and (pending a 
ratification of the act by a popular vote to be taken on the 
23d of May) formed a treaty offensive and defensive with 
the rebel government of Jefferson Davis. The resolutions of 
1798 had borne their bitter fruits. The same day, Governor 
Letcher, as the chief of a " sovereign State," issued his procla- 



12 Life and Character of 

mation. calling upon " all efficient and worthy Virginians in 
the army of the United States, to withdraw therefrom and en- 
ter the service of Virginia." 

Three days later ^April 20), Egbert E. Lee resigned his 
commission, after a service of thirty years, and his example 
was followed by hundreds of Southern officers. With but 
two exceptions, all the officers from seceded States who be- 
longed to the Second Cavalry joined the rebellion. Thomas 
was one of the two. While his brother officers were leaving, 
and at once taking high command in the rebel army, a com- 
rade asked Thomas what he would do if Virginia should vote to 
secede. " I will help to ivhip her back again," was his answer. 

On the 23d of May, the people of Virginia enacted the 
mockery of an election, to ratify her secession from the 
Union against which she had already taken up arms. 

Their overwhelming vote in favor of secession, swept away 
from our army nearly all the Virginians who had not left in 
April. With the news of this election, there came to Thomas 
the passionate appeals of his family and friends, the summons 
of his State to join her armies, and the threatening anathemas 
of them all in case he should refuse. He answered by leaving 
Carlisle Barracks on the 27th of May, and leading a brigade 
from Chambersburg across Maryland to Williarasport, and. on 
the 16th of June, rode across the Potomac in full uniform, at 
the head of his brigade, to invade Virginia and fight his old 
commanders; and, a few days later, he led the right wing of 
General Patterson's army in the battle of Falling Waters, 
where the rebels under Stonewall Jackson were defeated. Such 
was the answer that Thomas made to the demands of rebellion! 

Before leaving this period in the life of General Thomas, it 
is due to his memory and to the truth of history that I should 
notice an attempt which was lirst made in the South, amidst 
the passions of war, to throw a shadow on his good name, by 



General George H. Thomas. 



13 



declaring that he sought service on the rebel side, and only 
determined to stand by the Union when he failed to receive 
such rank as he desired among his enemies. 

When peace reopened intercourse between the North and 
South, these voices of calumny were silent, and remained so as 
long as Thomas was alive to answer. But when he was dead, his 
defamers ventured again to speak. The spectacle of a grateful 
nation standing in grief around his honored grave, awakened to 
new energy the envy and malice of those w^ho had staked all and 
lost all, in the mad attempt to destroy that Republic which 
Thomas had so powerfully aided to save. I should dishonor 
his memory, were I even to notice the wicked assaults made 
upon him in rebel journals, by writers who withheld their 
names, or shielded themselves behind the impersonal ty of a 
newspaper editorial. 

One attack, however — and, so far as I know, only one — has 
had the indorsement of a responsible name. The Richmond 
(Va.) Dispatch, of April 23, 1870, contains a letter from Fitz- 
HUGH Lee, late a general in the rebel army, and before the war 
a lieutenant in the regiment of which Thomas was major. 

In this letter, Lee asserts : That just before the ivar Thomas' 
feelings were strongly Southern; that in 1861 he expressed his inten- 
tion to resign ; and about the same time, sent a letter to Governor 
Letcher, offering his services to Virginia. 

To this statement I invite the most searching scrutiny. 
That prior to the vi-ar the sentiments of Thomas were generally 
in accord with those which prevailed in Virginia, and that he 
strongly reprobated many of the opinions and much of the 
conduct of Northern politicians, were facts well known to his 
friends and always frankly avowed by himself. That in the 
winter of 1860-61 he contemplated the resignation of his com- 
mission, we have no proof except the declaration of Fitzhugh 
Lee. But it would not be in the least surprising or iuconsis- 



14 Life and Character of 

tent, if, at that time, it seemed to him more than probable that 
disunion would be accomplished, and the army dissolved by 
political action and without war. Should that happen, he 
must perforce abandon his profession and seek some other 
employment. If it should appear that at that time he made 
inquiries looking toward a prospective employment as profes- 
sor in some college, the fact would only indicate his fear that 
the politicians would so ruin both his country and its army, 
that the commission of a soldier would be no longer an object 
of honorable desire. 

The charge that he ever offered or proposed to offer his 
sword to Virginia, or to any rebel authority, except point fore- 
most, and at the head of his troops, is utterly and infamously 
false. ]S"ot a shadow of a proof has ever been offered, nor can 
it be. When Fitzhugh Lee's letter was published, he was 
challenged on all sides to produce the letter which he alleged 
Thomas had written, tendering his services to the rebellion. 
His utter failure to produce any such letter, or any proof that 
such a letter was ever written, is a complete refutation of the 
charge. 

A few weeks after his first assault, Lee did indeed publish 
what purports to be a letter written by General Thomas, dated 
New York city, January 18, 1861. 

"Whether this letter is genuine or not, and if genuine, 
whether printed as it was written, we have no other evidence 
than our faith in those who received and published it. But 
waiving the question of its genuineness, and of the correctness 
of the printed text, I appeal to the letter itself. It is not 
addressed to Governor Letcher, nor to any rebel authority; 
nor does the writer tender his services to Virginia or to any 
government or person. It is a letter addressed to a gentleman 
who had advertised in the newspapers for some one to fill a 
professorship in a military college in Virginia. The letter 



General George H. Thomas. 15 

inquires what salary pertains to the situation. It expresses no 
intention or willingness to resign ; and states as the writer's 
reason for making the inquiry, that from present appearances 
he fears it will soon be necessary for him to be looking up some 
means of support. This letter strongly confirms the views I 
have taken of General Thomas' character and feelings. 

Since the publication of Lee's letters, testimony has come 
from all quarters which annihilates forever all ground for this 
charge ; and now, while the witnesses are living, I desire to 
put on record at least a small portion of their testimony. Gen- 
eral Hartsuff, now and for many years a soldier of whom 
the nation is proud, writes that he saw Thomas many times, 
near the close of 1860, in the city of New York, and heard 
him discuss the state of the country, in company with many 
officers who afterward went into the rebel army. He says : 

" General Thomas was strong and bitter in his denunciations 
against all parties North and South that seemed to him responsi- 
ble for the condition of affairs. . . . But while he reprobated, 
sometimes very strongly, certain men and parties North, in that 
respect going as far as any of those who afterward joined the reb- 
els, he never, in my hearing, agreed with them respecting the 
necessit}' of going with their States; but he denounced the idesi, 
and denied the necessity of dividing the countr}", or destroying 
the Grovernment. This was before the actual secession of any of 
the States, when the prospect of war was not strong." 

These statements of General Hartsuff are abnndantly 
corroborated by other testimony. Let it be remembered that 
the question is not what were General Thomas' opinions of the 
political causes that led to the war; nor who was at fault in 
bringing on the agitation ; but it is this : Did he give any coun- 
tenance, sympathy, or support to the idea of disunion, or of 
war against the Government? 

Listen to the testimony of General R. W. Johnson, for 



i6 Life and Character of 



man}' years a gallant soldier of onr army, and now an honored 
member of this Society, He says : 

'•After the surrender in Texas, my regiment (of which Thomas 
was major) concentrated at Carlisle Barracks. I was intimately 
associated with General Thomas from that time until the close of 
the war. During the Patterson campaign we messed together, 
and frequently conversed freely together in regard to the war. I 
remember to have asked him what he should do it Virginia 
seceded. His reply was characteristic of the man: ' I will help 
to whip her back a^'ain.' General Thomas never flinched nor 
faltered, nor wavered in his devotion to his country." 

General Patterson, under Avhose command Thomas per- 
formed his first duty in the field, in May and June, 1861, says 
of hini : 

" General Thomas contemplated with horror the prospect of a 
war between the people of his own State and the Union ; but he 
never I'or a moment hesitated, never wavered, never swerved, from 
his allegiance to the nation that had educated him and whose ser- 
vant he was. From the beginning I would have pledged my 
hopes here and hereafter on the loyalty of Thomas. . . . He 
was the most unselfish man I ever knew; a perfectly honest man, 
who feared God and obeyed his commandments." 

What weightier testimony can be conceived than that of his 
classmate and friend of many years, the General of onr Army, 
the great soldier with whom Thomas served so grandly in the 
darkest hours of the war. General Sherman has favored me 
with a letter from which I quote. After stating tliat he went 
to Williamsport to visit Thomas early in 1861, he says: 

" It was June 16, the very daj^^ Patterson's army crossed the 
Potomac. I had a long personal conversation with Thomas that 
day, and after discussing the events that then pressed so heavily 
on all who dreaded civil war, especially the course taken by our 
friends who had abandoned our service and gone South, I asked 
him how he felt. His answer was emphatic : ' I have thought it all 
over,' he said, ' and I shall stand firm in the service of the Govern- 
ment.' " 



General George H. Thomas. 17 

General Sherman also writes, under date of August 1, 
1870 : 

"I have seen the letters published by Fitzhugh Lee, sustain- 
ing the assertion that, at the outset of our civil war, Thomas leaned 
to the South. 1 understand the state of his mind at that dreadful 
crisis, and see how a stranger might misconstrue him. At the 
time to which Fitzhugh Lee alludes, the Bhchanan administra- 
tion was in power, and had admitted that the Federal Government 
could not coerce a sovereign State; and his cabinet did all they 
could to malce army officers feel insecure in their offices. The 
Northern politicians, as a rule, had been unfriendly to the army, 
and when the election of Lincoln and Hamlin was complete, they 
(the officers) naturally felt uneasy as to their future, and cast 
about for employment. Several of them, I among the number, 
were employed at the military colleges of the South, and it was 
natural that Thomas should look to his friend, and our classmate, 
GiLHAM, then employed at Frank Smith's military school at Lex- 
ington, Yirginia. Thomas also entertained, as you must know, 
that intense mistrust of politicians to which the old army was 
bred, and feared the complications of 1860 would result in some 
political compromise or settlement, if not in a mutual agreement 
to separate; in which case it is possible he would have been forced 
for a support to have cast his lot with the Southern part. It is 
more than probable that, at the mess-table, Thomas may have 
given vent to some such feelings and opinions, then natural and 
proper enough. But as soon as Mr. Lincoln was installed in 
office, and manifested the deep feeling of love for all parts of the 
country — deprecating civil war, but giving the key-note that the 
Union should be maintained, even if it had to be fought for, and 
that forcible secession was treason — then Thomas, like all national 
men, brushed away the subtleties of the hour, saw clearly his duty, 
and proclaimed it, not by mere words, but by riding in full uni- 
form at the head of his regiment and brigade, invading without a 
murmur his native State, and commanding his men to put down 
forcible resistance by the musket." 

This just and masterly analysis is more than sufficient to 
settle the whole controversy. But I can not dismiss the sub- 
ject without opposing to his slanderers the stainless shield ol 



1 8 Life and Character of 

Thomas himself — his own unimpeachable words, recorded by 
Colonel A. L. Hough, his confidential aid at the time they 
were spoken. Colonel Hough says: 

"A slander upon the General was often repeated in the South- 
ern papers during and immediately subsequent to the rebellion. 
It was given upon the authority of prominent rebel oflScers, and 
not denied by them. It was to the effect that he was disappointed 
in not getting a high command in the rebel army he had sought 
for; hence his refusal to join in the rebellion. In a conversation 
with him on this subject, the General said this was an entire fab- 
rication, not having an atom of foundation ; not a line ever passed 
betM'een him and the rebel authorities; they have no genuine 
letter of his, nor was a word spoken by him to any one that could 
even lead to such an inference. He defied any one to produce 
any testimony, written or oral, to sustain such allegation ; he never 
entertained such an idea, for his duty was clear to him from the 
beginning," 

Among these utterances of General Thomas, one brief 
sentence, simple and sublime, is an epitome of his character 
and life. It is this: 

"My duty was clear from the beginning of the war." 

It is not enough to compare the conduct of Thomas at 
this trying period with that of Northern officers who remained 
true to the flag. The real measure of his merit is found by 
comparing him with such men as Lee and Johnston. Let us 
compare and contrast the conduct of Thomas with that of 
Robert E. Lee, who become the military chief and idol of the 
Southern Confederacy, and who, by the verdict of both friends 
and enemies, possessed many high qualities. 

We have seen that, on the 20th of April, Lee resigned his 
commission. On the same day, he wrote to a relative words 
which will remain forever as the most veritable picture of his 
character. He said ij 



General George H. Thomas. 



"The whole South is in a state of revolution, into which 
Virginia, after a long struggle, has been drawn ; and though I 
recognize no necessitj^ for this state of things, and would have 
forborne and pleaded to the end for redress of grievances, real 
or supposed, yet in my own person I had to meet the question 
whether I should take part against my native State With all 
my devotion to the Union, and the feelings of loyalty and duty of 
an American citizen, I have not been able to make up my mind to 
raise my hand against my relatives, my children, and my home. 
I have therefore resigned my commission in the array," etc. 

Lee here avows his devotion to the Union, bis feelings of 
loyalty and obligation as an American citizen, and declares 
that there was no necessity for the rebellion; and yet, after 
these confessions and declarations, which surrender utterly and 
forever all grounds for the justification of his conduct, he 
abandons his Government, and otters his sword to Virginia and 
to that rebellion which he neither justified nor approved. 

Like Lee, Thomas deplored the suicidal strife, and denied 
the justice or necessity of rebellion. Like Lee, he was warmly 
attached to his family and friends, to Virginia and her glorious 
traditions. Like Lee, he acknowledged his obligations to the 
great Republic, of which all the people of Virginia were citi- 
zens, and to the support and defense of which he had regis- 
tered his solemn oath when he became a soldier. But, unlike 
Lee, when the supreme hour of trial came, he rose to the full 
hight of the great occasion, and, esteeming the sanctity of his 
oath and the life of the Republic more precious than home, or 
kindred, or 8tate, drew his sword to put down a rebellion 
which, even by Lee's confession, was both unnecessary and 
indefensible. 

There was one thing in Lee's conduct which would have 
been impossible to Thomas' nature. Though Lee wrote his 
resignation April 20, it was not accepted by the Secretary of 
War till the 25th; and the letter of the Adjutant General, in- 



20 Life and Character of 

forming him of the acceptance, was not written till the 27th. 
Yet, on the 28fl of April, Lee accepted the appointment of 
Major General from the rebel Governor of Virginia, and the 
same day, issued and published a general order, assuming com- 
mand of the military and naval forces of that State, which 
forces, five days before, had attacked the troops of the United 
States at Harper's Ferry, and also at the Gosport navy yard, 
and were at that moment levying war against the Government 
which he had solemnly sworn to defend " against all its enemies 
and opposers whatsoever." Instead of keeping this oath, he 
assumed command of the armed enemies of the Union two 
days before his contract of service was canceled — a contract 
which he had lately renewed by accepting from Abraham 
Lincoln the commission of Colonel in the army of tlie United 
States. [See Appendix B.] 

If there had been no other sufficient motive, the religious 
respect with which Thomas regarded his oath would alone have 
prevented him from following the example of Lee. I conclude 
the discussion of this topic by declaring what I doubt not will 
be the just and unalterable verdict of history, that this was 
no doul>ting Thomas; that .he did not need to behold the 
bleeding wounds of his country before he believed, for his 
"duty was clear from the beginning," and he followed it with- 
out a murmur. Both these men are in their graves, and the 
judgment of mankind will finally assign them their places in 
history. For the verdict, I confidently appeal from the Vir- 
ginia of to-day to the Virginia of the future. 

After serving through the brief campaign of the Shenan- 
doah, General Thomas entered upon a wider field of action, 
and began that career which his country knows by heart. It 
is not possible, within the limits of this address, to give more 
than the most meager outline of his military services during 
the war for the Union. I shall, therefore, attempt no more 



General George H. Thomas. i\ 

than to state the nature and scope of his work, and to consider 
some of the qualities which he exhibited while performing it. 

Tiie fame of General Thomas as a soldier is Hnked for- 
ever with the history of the Army of the Camherland; for, in 
1861, he mustered in and organized its first brigade, and in 
1865, at Nashville, the scene of his greatest victory, he passed 
in farewell review, and mustered out of the service, more than 
one hundred and thirty thousand of its war-worn veterans. 
The Department of the Cumberland, embracing, at first, only 
Tennessee and Kentucky, was created by the War Department, 
August 15, 1861, and General Robert Anderson placed in 
command. At Anderson's request, Sherman, Thomas, and 
BuELL were made Brigadier Generals of Volunteers, and as- 
signed to his command. 

The remainder of 1861 was the period of organization. 
The first month's work that Thomas performed in the depart- 
ment, was at Cam[) Dick Robinson, where he mustered into 
service, eleven regiments and three batteries of Ohio, Indiana, 
Kentucky, and Tennessee troops. Those he organized into the 
First Brigade, which formed the nucleus of the division, then 
of the corps, and finally of the great army which he afterward 
commanded so long. 

In order to appreciate the career of General Thomas, it 
is necessary to comprehend not only the magnitude of the work 
to be accomplished by the Army of the Camberland, but also 
the relation which that army and its work sustained to the 
other great armies of the Union. 

It is now easy to see that, between the Northern and 
Southern States, there are three great natural pathways of in- 
vasion ; and to put down the rebellion, it was necessary that 
each of these be traversed and held by a great army. The 
first was the long and narrow slope from the chain of the 
Alleghany and Cumberland mountains to the Atlantic coast. 



22 Life and Character of 

The second was the great Western slope from the same moun- 
tain chain to the Ohio, the Tennessee, and Tombigbee rivers, 
and extending southward to the Gulf. The third was the 
Mississippi river itself, and the immediate territory along its. 
banks. 

Peculiarities of topography and surroundings required, for 
each of these lines, difierent modes of supplying an army and 
of conducting campaigns. The army of the East, which oper- 
ated on the first line, was in great part supplied from the sea; 
and many of its operations were carried on in conjunction with 
the navy. The army on the third, or Western line was su[)- 
plied from the Mississippi river; and the gun-boat service 
formed a novel and important feature in its military operations. 

The Army of the Cumberland held the center line, which 
was in many respects the most difficult of all. There could 
be but little naval co-operation with its movements; and only 
for a short distance could it be supplied by river transporta- 
tion. Its main supply was by a single line of railroad, running 
hundreds of miles among a hostile population, and requiring a 
heavy force for its protection. The great central pathway led 
into the heart of the rebellion. It crossed the only line of 
railway (the Memphis and Charleston) which united the East- 
ern and Western States of the Confederacy. Extraordinary 
obstacles lay in the pathway of an army moving southward 
over this central route. Besides the broad and deep rivers 
which cross it, the great mountain chain itself, bending sharply 
near the Georgia line, sweeps westward until it loses itself in 
the low sand-hills and plains of Alabama and Mississippi, thus 
presenting a most formidable barrier to an army invading the 
Gulf States. The great gateway of the mountain chain is at 
Chattanooga, where the Tennessee river bursts through the 
barrier. 

Nothing more strikingly illustrates the military genius 



General George H. Thomas. 23 



aud foresight of General Sherman, than the fact that so early 
as October, 1861, he comprehended the vastness of the struggle 
upon which the nation had entered, and the vital importance 
of this central line of operation. At that time, being in com- 
mand of the Department of the Cumberland, he sent to the 
War Department his estimate : 

" That to advance on the lino of the Louisville and Nashville 
railroad, would require an army of at least sixty thousand men; 
and to advance the great line of the center to its ultimate objec- 
tive, and reap the legitimate rewards, would require an army of 
two hundi-ed thousand men." 

This estimate was not only construed to his prejudice by 
the authorities at Washington, but you will remember that the 
public journals regarded his views as a conclusive evidence of 
insanity! At his own request, Sherman was relieved of the 
command, and, on the 15th of November, went to duty in an- 
other department, not to return again to the great line of the 
center until the country and its authorities had been educated 
up to his views of 1861. 

On the 15th of November, General Buell was placed in 
command of the department; and, as if to narrow the field of 
operations and restrict the views which General Sherman 
had expressed, the name of the department was changed, by 
order of the Secretary of War, to " The Department of the 
Ohio." 

The rebel authorities early saw the vital importance of 
pushing as far North as possible on this central line; and, 
before the end of 1861, they had established theniselves in 
force on a line extending from the base of the Cumberland 
mountains, by way of Bowling Green, Forts Donelson and 
Henry, to Columbus on the Mississippi. While the forces at 
Cairo, under General Grant, were threatening the left of this 



24 Life and Character of 

line at Coliimbns, and General Buell's main force was pre- 
paring to move on Bowling Green against Albert Sidney 
Johnston, who commanded the center and right, a rebel move- 
ment was in progress in Eastern and Southern Kentucky, 
which threatened the left and rear of General Buell's army, 
and would seriously disturb its movement against Johnston. 

In the earl}'^ autumn of 1861, the rebel authorities had 
organized a brigade in Eastern Tennessee and Southwestern 
Virginia, for the special purpose of guarding the mountain 
passes at Pound Gap and Cumberland Gap. Before the end 
of the year, they had also organized two active forces to oper- 
ate in front of these gaps — one under Marshall, which moved 
from the neighborhood of Pound Gap down the Sandy valley, 
and the other, a larger force, under Zollicoffer, which occu- 
pied the road leading from Cumberland Gap to Lexington. 

The lirst work of General Buell's campaign was to 
drive back these forces and occupy the two mountain passes, 
in order to protect his flank and rear. General Thomas had 
been placed in command of the First Division of the army, 
and, on the 31st of December, was ordered to move against 
Zollicoffer. In pursuance of this order, he fought and won 
the battle of Mill Springs, January 19, 1862, which was by 
far the most important military success that had yet been 
achieved west of Virginia; and, with the exception of the de- 
feat of Marshall, near Prestonburg, nine days before, it was 
the lirst victory in the department. In this battle, General 
Thomas laid the foundation of his fame in the array of the 
center. It was the largest and most important command 
he had held up to that time, and his troops came out of the 
fight with the strongest confidence in his qualities as a com- 
mander. 

This battle fully launched him upon his career; and from 
that time to the end of the war, his life was so crowded with 



General George H. Thomas. 25 

events that I can do no more than note tlie stages of com- 
mand and responsibility throngh which he passed; and even 
this I do, only to recall it to yonr minds as a subject of re- 
flection. 

From the 30th of November, 1861, to the 30th of Septem- 
ber, 1862, he commanded a division of General Buell's army, 
without intermission, except that during the months of May 
and June he commanded the right wing of the Army of the 
Tennessee, in and around Corinth. On the 30th of September, 
1862, he was appointed second in command of the Army of 
the Ohio, and served in that capacity in the battle of Perry- 
ville, and until October 30, 1862, when the old name of "De- 
partment of the Cumberland" was restored, and General 
RosECKANS assumed command. That officer reorganized the 
army, then known as the "Fourteenth Army Corps," into 
three distinct commands — right, left, and center — and assigned 
Thomas to the center, which consisted of five divisions. He 
held this command in the battle of Stone River, and until the 
9th of January, 1863, when, by order of the War Department, 
the three divisions of the arraj^ were made army corps. One 
of these, the Fourteenth Army Corps, Thomas commanded 
during the campaigns of Middle Tennessee and Chickamauga, 
which resulted in driving the rebels beyond the Tennessee 
river and gaining possession of Chattanooga. On the 19th 
of October, in obedience to orders from the War Depart- 
ment, he relieved General Rosecrans and assumed command 
of the Army of the Cumberland. Soon afterward, two other 
armies, Sherman's and Schofield's, were brought to Chat- 
tanooga, the three forming a grand array under General 
Grant, for the purpose of pushing the rebels further South on 
the great hue of the center. The Army of the Cumberland, 
consisting of four corps, formed the center of the grand army. 
In this position Thomas commanded it at the storming of Mis- 



26 Life and Character of 

sion Ridge, and in that series of masterly movements and bat- 
tles in Georgia, which resulted in the capture of Atlanta, Sep- 
tember 1, 1864. 

On the 27th of September, Thomas was ordered to Tennes- 
see to protect the department against the invasion of Hood. 
While in this command, he conducted the operations which 
resulted in the combats along the Duck river; the battle of 
Franklin, November 30; the destruction of Hood's army in the 
battle of Nashville, December 15 and 16, 1864; and finally in 
the capture of Jefferson Davis, in May, 1865. 

From June, 1865, to May, 1869, he commanded most of 
the territory which had been the theater of his service during 
the war; and on the 15th of May, 1869, he started for San Fran- 
cisco, where he remained in command of the Military Division 
of the Pacific until the date of his death, March 28, 1870. 

He was appointed Major General of Volunteers, April 25, 
1862; Brigadier General in the Regular Army, October 27, 1868, 
and Major General, December 15, 1864. 

In the presence of such a career, let us consider the qualities 
which produced it and the character which it developed. We 
are struck, at the outset, with the evenness and completeness 
of his life. There were no breaks in it, no chasms, no up- 
heavals. His pathway was a plane of continued elevation. 

It was so at the Military Academy. Slowly, but steadily 
and thoroughly, he worked up the sturdy materials of his 
nature into that strength and harmony which culture alone can 
produce. At the end of his first year, on the basis of general 
merit, he ranked twenty-sixth in his class. Each year wit- 
nessed an upward movement. At the end of his course he 
stood twelfth in his class. He was successively corporal, ser- 
geant, and lieutenant of cadets. The rules of the Academy 
make the slightest irregularity of conduct or appearance, a 
ground for demerit; and many cadets were marked hundreds 



General George H. Thomas. 27 



of demerits in the course of a year. Thomas had but twenty 
during his first year, nineteen the second, eighteen the third, 
and fourteen the fourth. 

In the army he never leaped a grade, either in rank or com- 
mand. He did not command a company until after long ser- 
vice as a lieutenant. He commanded a regiment only at the 
end of many years of company and garrison duty. He did 
not command a brigade until after he had commanded his reg- 
iment three years on the Indian frontier. He did not command 
a division until after he had mustered in, organized, disciplined, 
and commanded a brigade. He did not command a corps until 
he had led his division in battle and through many hundred 
miles of hostile country. He did not command the army until, 
in battle, at the head of his corps, he had saved it from ruin. 
This regular and steady advancement was suited to the char- 
acter of his mind and the habits of his life. When, in Septem- 
ber, 1862, he was offered the command of the army of the 
Ohio, he peremptorily declined it and urged the retention of 
General Buell. It would have violated his law of growth, to 
leap from a division to the head of an army, without first hav- 
ing assured himself, by actual trial, that he could handle 
a corps. The law of his life was greater than his love of 
fame. 

In such a career, it is by no means the least of a man's 
achievements, to take his own measure, to discover and under- 
stand the scope and range of his own capacity. Probably the 
best gauge of military ability is found in the number of troops 
a man can handle wisely and well in battle. 

The most successful soldier of our war has said, that when 
he accepted the command of his Illinois regiment, he deeply 
distrusted his ability to handle so large a number of men. He 
knew he could handle a company, for he had done that in 
Mexico; but how much higher his range extended he did not 



28 Life and Character of 

know. General Sherman has expressed the opinion that no 
man can eiFectually handle more than 70,000 men, in battle, in 
a wooded country like ours. Thomas was right in declining 
to command the Army of the Ohio in 1862. A year later 
he had tested himself, and was ready to bear greater responsi- 
bility. 

His career was not only great and complete, but, what is 
more signficant, it was, in an eminent degree, the work of his 
own hands. It was not the result of accident or happy 
chance. I do not deny that in all human pursuits, and 
especially in war, results are often determined by what men 
call fortune — " that name for the unknown combinations of 
Infinite power." But this is almost always a modifying rather 
than an initial force. Onl}' a weak, a vain, or a desperate man 
will rely upon it for success. 

Thomas' life is a notable illustration of the virtue and 
power of hard work; and in the last analysis the power to 
do hard work is o\\\y another name for talent. Professor 
Church, one of his instructors at West Point, says, of his 
student life, that "he never allowed anything to escape a 
thorough examination, and left nothing behind that he did not 
fully comprehend." And so it was in the army. To him a 
battle was neither an earthquake, nor a volcano, nor a chaos of 
brave men and frantic horses, involved in vast explosions of 
gunpowder. It was rather a calm, rational concentration of 
force against force. It was a question of lines and positions; 
of weight of metal, and strength of battalions. He knew 
that the elements and forces which bring victory are not 
created on the battle field, but must be patiently elaborated in 
the quiet of the camp, by the perfect organization and outfit of 
his army. His remark to a captain of artillery while inspecting 
a battery, is worth remembering, for it exhibits his theory of 
success: "Keep everything in order, for the fate of a battle 



General George H. Thori'ias. 29 

may turn on a buckle or a linch-piti." He understood so 
thorouglily the condition of his army, and its equipment, that 
when the hour of trial came, he knew how great a pressure it 
could stand, and how hard a blow it could strike. 

His character was as grand and as simple as a colossal 
pillar of chiseled granite. Every step of his career as a 
soldier, was marked by the most loyal and unhesitating obedi- 
ence to law — to the laws of his Government, and to the com- 
mands of his superiors. The obedience which he rendered to 
those above him he rigidly required of those under his com- 
mand. 

His influence over his troops grew steadily and constantly. 
He won his ascendancy over them, neither by artifice, nor by 
any one act of special daring, but he gradually filled them 
with his own spirit, until their confidence in him knew no 
bounds. 

His power as a commander was developed slowl}'- and 
silently; not like volcanic land lifted from the sea by sudden 
and violent upheaval, but rather like a coral island, where 
each increment is a growth — an act of life and work. 

Power exhibits itself under two distinct forms — strength 
and force — each possessing peculiar qualities, and each perfect 
in its own sphere. Strength is typified by the oak, the rock, 
the mountain. Force embodies itself in the cataract, the tem- 
pest, the thunderbolt. 

The great tragic poet of Greece, in describing the punish- 
ment of Prometheus for rebellion against Jupiter, represented 
Vulcan descending from heaven, attended by two mighty 
spirits, Strength and Force, by whose aid he held and bound 
Prometheus to the rock. 

In subduing our great rebellion, the Republic called to its 
aid men who represented many forms of great excellence and 
power. Avery few of our commanders possessed more force 



3© Life and Character of 

than Thomas — more genius for planning and executing bold and 
daring enterprises; but, in my judgment, no other was so com- 
plete an embodiment and incarnation of strens^th — the strenirth 
that resists, maintains, and endures. His power was not that 
of the cataract, which leaps in fury down the chasm, but rather 
that of the river, broad and deep, whose current is steady, silent, 
irresistible. 

It was most natural that such a man should be placed in 
the center of movements. The work to be accomplished on 
the great line of the center, was admirably adapted to the mil- 
itary character of Thomas. To advance steadily, and to stay — 
to occupy, and to hold — was the business of the Army of the 
Cumberland from first to last. It is a significant fact that, from 
the autumn of 1862, till the autumn of 1861 — from Bowling 
Green to Atlanta — whether commanding a division, a corps, 
or an army, his position on the march, and his post in battle 
was the center. And he was placed there because it was found 
that when his command occupied the center, that center could 
not be broken. It never was broken. 

At Stone River he was the unmoved and immovable 
pivot, around which swung our routed right wing. As the eye 
of RosECRANS, our daring and brilliant commander, swept over 
that bloody field, it always rested on Thomas, as the center of 
his hope. For five days Thomas' command stood fighting in 
its bloody tracks, until twenty per cent, of its members were 
killed or wounded, and the enemy had retreated. 

But it was reserved for the last day at Chickamauga to 
exhibit, in one supreme example, the vast resources of his pro- 
digious strength. After a day of heavy fighting and a night 
of anxious preparation, General Rosecrans had established 
his lines for the purpose of holding the road to Chattanooga. 
This road was to be the prize of that day's battle. If our army 



General George H. Thomas. 31 

failed to hold it, not only was our campaign a failure, but 
inevitable destruction awaited the army itself. 

RosECRANS had crossed the Tennessee, and had success- 
fully maneuvered the enemy out of Chattanooga. The greater 
work remained to march iiis own army into that place, in the 
face of Bragg's army, heavily reinforced, and greatly outnum- 
bering his own. 

The Rossville road — the road to Chattanooga — was the 
great prize to be won or lost at Chickamauga. If the enemy 
failed to gain it, their campaign would be an unmitigated dis- 
aster; for the gateway of the mountains would be irretrieva- 
bly lost. If our army failed to hold it, not only would our 
campaign be a failure, but almost inevitable destruction 
awaited the army itself The first day's battle (September 19), 
which lasted far into the night, left us in possession of the 
road; bui all knew that next day would bring the final de- 
cision. Late at night, surrounded by his commanders assem- 
bled in the rude cabin known as the Widow Glen House, 
RosECRANS gave his orders for the coming morning. The sub- 
stance of his order to Thomas was this : " Your line lies across 
the road to Chattanooga. That is tlie pivot of the battle. 
Hold it at all hazards; and I will reinforce you, if necessary, 
with the whole army." 

During the whole night, the reinforcements of the enemy 
were coming in. Early next morning, we were attacked along 
the whole line. Thomas commanded the left and center of 
our arm}'. From early morning, he withstood the furious and 
repeated attacks of the enemy who constantly reinforced his 
assaults on our left. About noon, our whole right wing was 
broken, and driven in hopeless confusion from the field. liosE- 
crans was himself swept away in the tide of retreat. The 
forces of Longstreet, which had broken our right, desisted 
from the pursuit, and forming in heavy columns assaulted the 



22 Life and Character of 

right flank of Thomas with unexampled fury. Seeing the ap- 
proaching danger, he threw back his exposed flank toward the 
base of the mountain and met the new periL 

Wliile men shall read the history of battles, they will 
never fail to study and admire the work of Thomas during 
that afternoon. With but twenty-live thousand men, formed 
in a semi-circle of which he himself was the center and soul, 
he successfully resisted, for more than five hours, the repeated 
assaults of an army of sixty-five thousand men, flushed with 
victory, and bent on his annihilation. 

Toward the close of the day, his ammunition began to 
fail. One by one his division commanders reported bat ten 
rounds, five rounds, or two rounds left. The calm, quiet an- 
swer was returned : " Save your fire for close quarters, and 
when your last shot is fired, give them the bayonet." On a 
portion of his line, the last assault was repelled by the bay- 
onet, and several hundred rebels were captured. When night 
had closed over the combatants, the last sound of battle was 
the booming of Thomas' shells bursting among his baffled and 
retreating assailants. 

Pie was, indeed, the " Rock of Chickamauga," against 
which the wild waves of battle dashed in vain. It will stand 
Avritten forever in the annals of his country, that there he 
saved from destruction the Army of the Cumber/and. He held 
tlie road to Chattanooga. The campaign was successful. The 
gate of the mountains was ours. 

Time would fail me to notice other illustrations of his 
qualities, as exhibited at the storming of Mission Ridge, 
and during the " hundred days under fire" in the great march 
from Chattanooga to Atlanta. Later in the war, there awaited 
him a test, in some respects more searching than any that 
tried him. 

On the 27th of September, 1864, he was ordered by Gen- 



General George H. Thomas. ^3 

ERAL Sherman, to return with a portion of his army into Ten- 
nessee and defend the department against Hood's invasion. 
By the end of October, Sherman had determined to cut loose 
from his base and march to the sea. For this service he 
selected the ilower of his grand army, inckidi ng two of the 
best corps of Thomas' army. 

By the 5th of November, Hood was encamped on the 
banks of the Tennessee with forty thousand infantry and not 
less than twelve thousand of the best cavalry in the rebel ser- 
vice. Thus Thomas was confronted by that veteran army 
which had so ably resisted Sherman's army on its march to 
Atlanta. At the same date, Thomas had an effective force of 
but twenty-three thousand infantry and seven thousand cav- 
alry. Convalescents and dismounted cavalry were coming' 
back to him from Atlanta; raw recruits were arrivine: from 
the North, and two divisions were en route from Missouri. 
The problem before him was how to delay the advance of the 
enemy, until he could organize a force strong enough to win a 
battle. 

The history of this campaign is too well known to need 
repetition here. I allude to it only to exhibit his characteris- 
tics as a soldier. After the skillful resistance at Duck river 
and Spring Hill, and the remarkably brilliant and bloody bat- 
tle at Franklin, he found Hood's army in front of Nashville on 
the 1st of December. With his accustomed care, he had 
measured the force of the opposing armies and determined 
that by one plan only could he achieve certain success. That 
plan required hiin to delay the battle until he could get his 
new and improvised army fully in hand, and could organize a 
cavalry force to secure the fruits of victory. The authorities 
at Washington, fearing the breaking up of our communica- 
tions with Chattanooga, and, perhaps, another invasion of 
Kentucky, were dissatisfied with his delay, and urged him to 



34 Life and Character of 

give battle immediately. He knew, better tban any other 
could know, the law of his own mind and the methods by 
which he had a right to expect success. The 9th of December 
came, and with it the intelHgence that an order was prepared 
to suspend him from command and to require another to make 
the attack. 

It may weU be questioned whether his response to tliis in- 
telligence will not confer more glory on his name than the 
winning of a battle. In his dispatch of December 9th to Gen- 
eral Halleck, he said : 

" Your dispatch of 10:30 a. m. this date is received. I regret 
that General Grant should feel dissatisfaction at my delay in at- 
tacking the enemy. I feel conscious that I have done everything 
in my power to prepare, and that the troops could not have been 
got ready before this ; and if he should order me to be relieved I 
will submit without a murmur. A terrible storm of freezing rain 
lias come on since daylight, which will render an attack impossi- 
ble until it breaks." 

On receiving this dispatch. General Grant answered him 
that he had telegraphed to suspend the order relieving him, 
and in conclusion said : '"I hope most sincerely that the facts 
will show that you have been right all the time." 

On the 11th, however, he received from Genteral Grant 
a peremptory order to " delay no longer for weather or rein- 
forcements." Still the storm raged, and iTashville was locked 
in ice. On the 12th he attempted to form his lines for battle ; 
but the ground was so thickly incrusted with ice, tliat his 
troops could neither ascend the slopes nor move in good order 
on level ground. That night, he stated the situation to Gen- 
eral Halleck, in a telegram which concluded with these 
words : " Under these circumstances, I believe that an attack 
at this time would ouly result in a useless sacrifice of life." 
Not until the morning of the 15th did he deem it possible to 
win a battle. That morning, the Lieutenant General had 



General George H. Thomas. ^S 



started from City Point, Virginia, on his way to Nashville to 
assume the command himself; bnt at Washington, the news 
reached him of the first day's fight. On the evening of the 
16th Thomas had substantially destroyed the army of Hood. 
In reviewing these transactions there would be nojustice in 
crimination or recrimination ; in blaming the living in order to 
praise the dead. It was the spectacle of two able commanders, 
each true to himself, each honoring the other while following 
his highest convictions of duty — the one, impelled by the wishes 
of his superiors, the President and Secretary of War, and by 
his own judgment of the situation to deliver immediate battle — 
the other, preferring to lose his command rather than to sacri- 
fice his army, to be right rather than seem so. Of Thomas' con- 
duct on this trying occasion, our comrade, GtENEral Cox, who 
bore so noble a part in the Nashville campaign, has well said : 

"He waited with immovable finnnessi for the rii,du hour to come. 
It came, and with it a justification of both his military skill and 
his own self-forgetl'ul patriotism, so complete and glorious that it 
would be a mere waste of words to talk about it." 

General Grant himself has officially put it on record, that 
the defeat of Hood was the vindication of Thomas' judgment. 

Nashville was the only battle of our war which auuihilated 
an army. Hood crossed the Tennessee late in November, and 
moved northward with an army of fifty-seven thousatid vete- 
rans. Before the end of December twenty-five thousand of 
that number were killed, wounded, or captured; thousands 
more had deserted, and the rabble that followed him back to 
the South was no longer an army. 

In summing up the qualities of General Thomas, it is diffi- 
cult to find his exact parallel in history. His character as a 
man and a soldier was unique. In some respects he resembled 
Zachary Taylor; and many of his solid qualities, as a 



^6 Life and Character of 

soldier, were developed by his long service under that honest 
and sturdy commander. 

In patient attention to all the details of duty,in the thorough- 
ness of organization, equipment, and discipline of his troops 
and in the powerful grasp by which he held and wielded his 
army, he was not unlike and fully equaled Wellington. 

The language applied to the Iron Duke, by the historian of 
the Peninsular War, might almost be mistaken for a descrip- 
tion of Thomas. JSTapier says : 

" He held his army in hand, keeping it, with unmitigated labor, 
always in a fit state to march or to fight. . . . Sometimes he 
was indebted to fortune, sometimes to his natural genius, always 
to his untiring industry ; for he was emphatically a jiainstaking 
man." 

The language of Lord Brougham, addressed to Welling- 
ton, is a fitting description of ThOxMAS : 

" Mighty Captain ! who never advanced except to cover his 
arms with glory; Mightier Captain ! who never retreated except 
to eclipse the glory of his advance." 

If I remember correctly, no enemy was ever able to tight 
Thomas out of any position he undertook to hold. 

On the whole, I can not doubt that the most fitting parallel to 
General Thomas is found in our greatest American, the man 
who was, "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of 
his countryaien." The personal resemblance of General 
Thomas to Washington was often the subject of remark. Even 
at West Point, Rosecrans was accustomed to call him Gen- 
eral Washington. 

He resembled Washington in the gravity and dignity of his 
character; in the solidity of his judgment; in the careful accu- 
racy of all his transactions; in his incorruptible integrity, and 
in his extreme, but unafiected, modesty. 



General George H. Thomas. 



37 



Though his death was most sudden and unexpected, all his 
official papers, and his accounts with the Government, were in 
perfect order, and ready for instant settlement. His reports 
and official correspondence were models of pure stjle, and full 
of valuable details. Even during the exciting and rapid cam- 
paign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, he recorded, each mouth, 
the number of rounds his men had fired, and other similar 
facts concerning the equipment and condition of his army. He 
has left behind him a great mass of most valuable papers, clas- 
sified and arranged in perfect order, the publication of which 
will make an almost complete history of the Army of the Cam- 
berland. 

His modesty was as real as his courage. When he was in 
Washington in 1866, his friends with great difficulty persuaded 
him to allow himself to be introduced to the House of Repre- 
sentatives. He was escorted to the Speaker's stand, while the 
great assembly of representatives and citizens arose and greeted 
him with the most enthusiastic marks of affection and rever- 
ence. Mr. Speaker Colfax, in speaking of it afterward, said : 

'■■ I noticed, as he stood beside me, that his hand trembled like an 
aspen leaf. He could bear the shock of battle, but he shrank 
before the storm of applause." 

He was not insensible to praise; and he was quick to feel 
any wrong or injustice. While grateful to his country for the 
honor it conferred upon him, and while cherishing all expres- 
sions of affection on the part of his friends— he would not 
accept the smallest token of regard, in the form of a gift. 

So frank and guileless was his life, so free from anything 

that approached intrigue, that when after his death his private 

letters and papers were examined, there was not a scrap among 

them that his most confidential friends thought best to destroy. 

When Phidias was asked, why he took so much pains to 



38 Life and Character of 

finish up the parts of his statue that would not be in sight, he 
said : "These I am finishing for the gods to look at." In the 
life and character of General Thomas, there were no secret 
places of which his friends will ever be ashamed. 

But his career is ended. Struck dead at his post of 
duty, a bereaved nation bore his honored dust across the conti- 
nent and laid it to rest on the banks of the Hudson, amidst 
the tears and grief of millions. The nation stood at his 
grave as a mourner. ]S'o one knew until he was dead, how 
strong was his hold on the hearts of the American people. Every 
citizen felt that a pillar of State had fallen ; that a great, and 
true, and pure man had passed from earth. 

There are no fitting words in which I may speak of the loss 
which every member of this Society has sustained in his death. 

The General of the army has beautifully said, in his order 
announcing the death of Thomas : 

" Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the Old Army of 
the Cumberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him Father, 
and will weep for him in tears of manly grief." 

To us, his comrades, he has left the rich legacy of his friend- 
ship. To his country and to mankind, he has left his character 
and his fame as a priceless and everlasting possession. 

"0 iron nerve to true occasion true! 
O fallen at length that tower of strength 
Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew !" ' 

" His work is done ; 

But while the races of mankind endure, 

Let his great example stand 

Colossal seen of every land, 

And keep the soldier firm, the statesman pure. 

Till in all lands and thro' all human story. 

The path of Duty be the way to Glory." 



General George H. Thomas. ^g 



APPENDIX TO GEN. GARFIELD'S ORATION. 



A., 



The Army Register shows the following as the Eoster of the 
Second U. S. Cavalry in 18G0, with the date of the resignation of 
those who went into the rebel service. 

Colonel Albert S. Johnston,* resigned May 3, 1861. 

Lieutenant Colonel Egbert E. Lee,* resigned April 25, 1861. 

Major Wm. J. Hardee,* resigned January 31, 1861. 

Major George H. Thomas. 

Captain Earl Van Dorn,* resigned January 31, 1861. 

Captain Edmund K. Smith,* resigned April 6, 1861. 

Captain James Oakes. 

Captain Innis N. Palmer. 

Captain George Stoneman. 

Captain William E. Bradfute, resigned March 21, 1861. 

Captain Albert G. Brackett.* 

Captain Charles J. Whiting. 

Captain Nathan G. Evans, resigned February 27, 1861. 

Captain Eichard W. Johnson. 

First Lieutenant Joseph H. McArthur. 

First Lieutenant Chas. W. Field,* resigned May 30, 1861. 

First Lieutenant Kenner Garrard. 

First Lieutenant Walter H. Jenifer,* resigned AjDril 30, 1861 . 



*Became Generals in the Kebel Army. 



40 Life and Character of 

First Lieutenant William B. Eoyall. 

First Lieutenant William P. Chambliss. 

First Lieutenant Robert Nelson Eagle. 

First Lieutenant John T. Shoaff, resigned February 22, 1861. 

First Lieutenant George B. Cosby,* resigned May 10, 1861. 

First Lieutenant William W. Lowe. 

First Lieutenant John B. Hood,* resigned April 16, 1861. 

Second Lieutenant James B. Witherell. 

Second Lieutenant Joseph F. Minter, resigned March 31, 1861. 

Second Lieutenant Chas. W. Pleifer,* resigned April 1, 1861. 

Second Lieutenant James E. Harrison. 

Second Lieutenant A. Parker Porter. 

Second Lieutenant Wesley Owens. 

Second Lieutenant Jas. P. Major,* resigned March 21, 1861. 

Second Lieutenant Fitzhugh Lee,* resigned May 21, 1861. 

Second Lieutenant Manning M.Kimmell, resigned Aug. 14, '61. 

Second Lieutenant Geo. A. Cunningham, resigned Feb. 27, '61. 

Brevet Second Lieutenant Abraham K. Arnold. 

* Became Generals in the Rebel Army. 



General George H. Thomas. 41 



]Sovember 19, 1870. 



DEAR GENERAL; 



I give you the following from memory, having never 
made any written note of it before. 

It must have been about, if not upon, the 19th April, 1861, that 
Colonel E. E. Lee, First U. S. Cavalry, then staying at Arlington, 
came to General Scott's office, opposite the War Department, in 
Washington, in obedience to a message from the General that he 
desired to see him. I was the only person present during the 
interview. General Scott spoke for about fifteen minutes, the 
substance of his remarks being that it was time Lee should clearly 
define hia position upon the question which was causing many 
Southern officers to resign from the United States Army ; that he 
had probably already made up his mind, but that he should weigh 
well the consequence; that the cause of the Southern people 
against the North could not possibly terminate in lavor of the 
former, and should it fail the result must be disastrous to those 
officers who left the army to join the South. 

Lee listened in silence, and at last replied briefly : " General, I 
must go with my native State in what she decides to hz best. My 
children all own property in Virginia; all that we have is there. 
I can not raise my hand against my children." 

The interview then terminated, and Lee sent in his resigna- 
tion the next day, April 20, 1861. 

Yours truly, 

E. D. TOWNSEND. 
General Garfield, M. C. 



42 Life and Character of 



O. 

Washington, D. C, November 21, 1870. 
DEAR GENERAL: 

I send you the following information, drawn from the 
records in the Adjutant Greneral's office. 

E. B. Lee recorded his ))ame in the Adjutant General's office, 
March 5, 1861, as Brevet Colonel and Lieutenant Colonel Second 
Cavalry. Address, Arlington: with the remark, "under orders 
from Department of Texas." 

E. E. Lee was confirmed by the Senate as Colonel First Cavalry, 
March 23, 1861. Date of Commission, March 25, 1861, to rank 
from March 10, 1861. Commission forwarded to him at Arlington, 
Ya., March 28, 1861, and its receipt acknowledged and accepted by 
him March 30, 1861. April 20, 1861, by letter from Arlington, 
E. E. Lee tenders his resignation as Colonel First Cavalry. Ee- 
ceived by General Scott the same day, and sent to the Adjutant 
General. Submitted to General Cameron, Secretary of War, April 
24, 1861, and accepted by him the next day, April 27, 1861. He was 
inibrmed at Eichmond of the acceptance, by the President, of his 
resignation, to take effect April 25, 1861. 

In the letter of tender of resignation, no reason given. 

FiTZHUGH Lee records his name at the Adjutant General's 
office as Second Lieutenant First Cavalry, May 1, 1861, with the 
remark, "on seven days' leave from West Point," at Washington, 
May 16, 1861, tenders his resignation. Address Eichmond. Eesig- 
nation submitted to General Cameron, Secretary of War, May 
21, 1861, and accepted by him. 

I have the honor to be. General, very respectfully. 

Your obedient servant, 

L. THOMAS, 
Brigadier General U. S. Army. 
General J. A. Garfield, Washington, D. C. 



General George H. Thomas. 43 

Arlington, Ya., Afril 20, 1861. 



GENEEAL: 

Since my interview with you, on the 18th inst., I have 
felt that I ought not longer to retain my commission in the army. 
I therefore tender my resignation, which I request you will recom- 
mend for acceptance. It would have been presented at once but 
for the struggle it has cost me to separate mj^self from the service 
to Avhich I have devoted all the best years of my life and all the 
ability T possessed. 

During the whole of that time — more than a quarter of a cen- 
tur}^ — 1 have experienced nothing but kindness from my superiors 
and the most cordial friendship from my comrades. To no one, 
General, have I been so much indebted as to yourself for uniform 
kindness and consideration, and it has always been ray ardent 
desire to merit your approbation. I shall carry to the grave the 
most grateful recollections of jowy kind consideration, and your 
name and fame will always be dear to me. 

Save in defense of ray State, I never desire to draw my sword. 
Be pleased to accept my most earnest wishes for the continuance 
of your happiness and prosperity, and believe me, most truly 
yours, E. E. LEE. 

Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, 

Commanding United States Army. 

E. 

Headquarters Eichmond, April 23, 18G1. 
General Orders No. 1 : 

In obedience to orders from His Excellency, John Letcher 
Governor of the State, Major General Egbert E. Lee assumes 
command of the Military and J^aval Forces of Virginia. 
[Signed] E. E. LEE, 

Major General. 



44 Life and Character of 



Arlington, Va., Aipril 20, 1861. 



MY DEAE SISTEE: 



I am grieved at my inability to see you. I have been 
waiting for a "more convenient season," which has brought to 
many before me deep and lasting regret. Now we are in a state 
of war which will yield to nothing. The whole South is in a 
state of revolution, into which Virginia, after a long struggle, has 
been drawn ; and though I recognize no necessity for this state of 
things, and would have forborne and pleaded to the end for 
redress of grievances, real or supposed, j-et in my own person I 
had to meet the question whether I would take part against my 
native State. With all my devotion to the Union, and the feeling 
of loyalty and duty of an American citizen, I have not been able 
to make up my mind to raise my hand against ray relatives, my 
children, my home. I have, therefore, resigned my commission 
in the army, and, save in defense of viy native State, with the hope 
that my poor services will never be needed, I hope I may never 
be called on to draw my sword. 

I know you will blame me, but you must think as kindly of 
me as you can, and believe that 1 have endeavored to do what I 
thought right. To show you the feeling and struggle it cost me, 
I send a copy of my letter to General Scott, which accompanied 
my letter of resignation. I have no time for more. 

R. E. LEE. 
LofC. 



General George H. Thomas. 45 



a. 

Washington, April 7, 1870. 
HON. J. A. GARFIELD, 

House of Representatives. 

Sir: 

In compliance with your request, I am directed 
by the Secretary of War to send you the inclosed sketch of Gen- 
eral Thomas' services, and the General Orders announcing his 
decease. 

I am. sir, very respectfully, 

Your obedient servant, 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Adjutant General. 

(born VIRGINIA.) GEORGE H. THOMAS. (appointed Virginia.) 

MILITARY HISTORY. 

Cadet at the United States Military Academy from July 1, 
1836, to July 1, 1840, when he was graduated, and promoted in 
the Army to 

Second Lieutenant, Third Artillery, July 1, 1840. 

Served in garrison at Fort Columbus, N. Y., 1840; in the 
Florida War, 1840-42, being engaged in Major Wade's capture 
of seventy Seminole Indians, November 6, 1841 ; in garrison at 
New Orleans 
(Brevet First Lieutenant, November 6, 1841, for gallantry and good 

conduct in the war against the Florida Indians) 
Barracks, La., 1842; Fort Moultrie, S. C, 1842-43; and Fort Mc- 
Henry, Md., 1843-45; on recruiting service, 1845; in garrison 

(First Lieutenant, Third Artillery, April 30, 1844) 
at Fort Moultrie, S. C, 1845; in military occupation of Texas, 
1845-4(3; in the war with Mexico, 1846-48, being engaged in the 



4-6 Life and Character of 



defense of Fort Brown, Texas, May 3-9, 1846; battle of Monterey, 

September 21-23, 1846; and battle of Buena Vista, 

{Brevet Captain, September 23, 1846, for gallant conduct in the several 

conflicts at Monterey, Mexico) 
February 22, 23, 1847; in garrison at the mouth of the Eio 
Grande, 
{Brevet Major, February 23, 1847, /or gallant and meritorious conduct 

in the battle of Buena Vista, Mexico) 
Texas, 1848-49; in Florida hostilities against the Seminole In- 
dians, 1849-50; in garrison at Fort Independence, Mass., 1850; at 
the Military Academy, as Instructor of Artillery and Cavalry, 
April 2, 1851, to May 1, 1854; on frontier duty, on 

{Captain, Third Artillery, December 24, 1853) 
march to Benicia, Cal., in command of a battalion of the Third 
Artillery, 1854; Fort Yuma, Cal., 1854-55; in garrison at 

{Major, Second Cavalry, May 12. 1855) 
JeflPerson Barracks, Mo., 1855; on recruiting service, 1856; on 
frontier duty at Fort Mason, Texas, 1857-58 ; Fort Belknap, Texas, 
1858-59; Camp Cooper, Texas, and expedition to Eed Eiver 
country, 1859-60; Kiowa expedition, 1860, being engaged in a 
skirmish near the head of Clear Fork of the Brazos river, August 
26, 1860, where he was wounded ; on leave of absence, 1860-61. 
Served during the rebellion of seceding States, 1861-66, 
{Lieutenant Colonel, Second Cavalry, April 25, 1861) 
in reorganizing and equipping his regiment at Carlisle Barracks, 
Pa., April 14 to May 27, 1861 ; in operations in Shenandoah Val- 
ley, June 1 to August 26, 1861, being engaged in command 
{Colonel Second Cavalry, May 3, 1861; Fifth Cavalry, August 3, 1861) 
of a brigade in the action of Falling Waters, July 2, 1861 ; skir- 
mish at Martinsburg, July 3, 1861, and skirmish at Bunker Hill, 
July 15, 1861 ; in the Department of the 

{Brigadier General, U. S. Volunteers, August 17, 1861) 
Cumberland, September 6 to November 30, 1861 ; in organizing 
Kentucky and Tennessee volunteers, at Camp Dick Eobinson, 



General George H. Thomas. 47 

Ky., September 18 to October 28, 1861 ; in the advance on Crab 
Orchard and Lebanon, Ky., October 28 to November 30, 1861 ; in 
command of division (^Army of the Ohio), November 30, 1861, to 
March 19, 1862, being in command and engaged at the combat of 
Mill Spring, Ky., January 19, 20, 1862, and movement on Nash- 
ville, via Somerset, Lebanon, and Louisville, February 15 to 
March 4, 1862 ; in the Tennessee and Mississippi campaign, Mtirch 
19 to June 26, 1862, being engaged in the march on Pittsburg 
Landing, Tenn., with his division as the reserve of the Army of 
the Ohio, Mar ah 19 to April 9, 1862; in command of the right 
wing of the Army of the Tennessee, in the advance upon and siege 
of Corinth, April 9 to May 30, 

(Major General U. S. Volunteers, April 25, 1862, to December 15, 1864) 

1862, and in command of Corinth, Miss., June 5-22, 1862; in 
Major General Buell's operations {Army of the Ohio) in North 
Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, June 26 to November 7, 1863; 
at Tuscumbia, Ala., guarding the Memphis and Charleston rail- 
road, June 26 to July 25, 1862; in command of Dochard, August 
5-15, of McMinnville, August 19 to September 3, and of Nash- 
ville, Tenn., September 7-14, 1862; in pursuit of enemy from 
Prewitt's Knob to Louisville, Ky., September 20-26, 1862; and as 
second in command of the Army of the Ohio, on the advance into 
Kentucky, September 30 to November 7, 1862, being engaged in 
command of the right wing of the army during the battle of 
Perry vi lie, October 8, 1862, and pursuit of the enemy to Bar- 
boursville; in Major General Eosecrans' Tennessee campaign, 
in command of the Fourteenth Army Corps {Army of the Cumber- 
land), November 7, 1862, to October 19, 1863, being engaged in 
the battle of Stone river, December 31, 1862, to January 3, 1863; 
advance of Tallahoraa, June 24 to July 4, 1863; action at Hoover's 
Gap, June 26, 1863; passage of Elk river, July 3, and of the Ten- 
nessee, September 2, 1863; battle of Chickamauga, September 19, 
20, 1863, and checking the enemy's advance September 21, 1863, 
upon Chattanooga, to which he retired and commenced fortifying; 



48 Life and Character of 

in command of the Department and Army of the Cumberland, Octo- 
ber 19, 1863, being engaged in opening liis communications 

{Brigadier General U. S. Army, October 27, 1863) 
by the Tennessee river and Lookoat valley, October 24-27, 1863; 
battle of Mission Eidge, November 23-25, 1863 ; pursuit of the 
enemy and combat at Einggold, Ga., November 26, 1863 ; and re- 
organizing his army, December 1, 1863, to May 2, 1864; in the in- 
vasion of Georgia, May 2 to September 7, 1864 ; in command of the 
Army of the Cumberland, composed of the Fourth, Fourteenth, and 
Twentieth Army Corps, and three cavalry divisions, being en- 
gaged in operations around Dalton, May 7-13, 1864; demonstra- 
tions against Eesaca, May 13, till occupied. May 16, 1864; pursuit 
of the enemy, with constant skirmishing, to Cassville, May 17-19, 
1864; occupation of Eome by Davis' division of the Fourteenth 
Army Corps, May 18, 1864; action of Cassville, May 19, 1864; 
battle of Dallas, May 25-28, 1864; movement against Pine Moun- 
tain, with almost daily severe engagements. May 28 to June 20, 
1864; battles of Kenesaw Mountain, June 20 to July 2, 1864; 
assault on Euff's Station, July 4, 1864; passage of the Chattahoo- 
chie river, July 12-17, 1864; combat of Peach Tree creek, July 
19-21, 1864; siege of Atlanta, July 22 to September 2, 1864; 
assault of the enemy's intrenchments at Jonesboro, September 1, 
1864: surrender of Atlanta, September 2, 1864, and occupation of 
the place, September 8-27, 1864; in organizing, October to Decem- 
ber, 1864, at Nashville, Tenn., in obedience to Major General 
Sherman's instructions of September 27, 1864, the defense of Ten- 
nessee against the rebel invasion under General Hood, by con- 
centrating his scattered forces behind Duck river, which, being 
turned, November 29, 1864, after five days' constant skirmishing, 
fell back to Harpeth river, -^ here they were desperately engaged 
at the battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864, and finally took 
position, with other reinforcements, before Nashville, where the 
rebel army was utterly routed 

(Major General U. S. Army, December 15, 1864) 
in the battle of December 15, 16, 1864, and driven beyond the 



General George H. Thomas. 49 

Tennessee river, with irainense loss of men and material; in 
organizing various raiding expeditions, and sending troojjs to 
other departments, December, 1864, to M.ay, 1865, which materi- 
a;liy contributed to the overthrow of the rebellion;* and in com- 
mand, June 27, 1865, to August 13, 1866, headquarters at Nash- 
ville, Tenn., of the Military Division of the Tennessee, embracing 
the Departments of Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, and 
Mississippi ; of the Department of the Tennessee, August 13, 1866, 
to March 11, 1867, headquarters at Nashville, Tenn., till Novem- 
ber 1, 1866, and at Louisville, Ky., till March 11, 1867, when he 
was assigned to the command of the Third Military District 
(Greorgia, Florida, and Alabama), from which he was relieved, at 
his own request, Mai^ch 15, 1867 ; and of the Department of the 
Cumberland, March 16, 1867, to May 15, 1869 ; and as member of 
the board for recommendations for brevets to general officers, 
March 14-24, 1866; President of a Court of Inquiry, at Washing- 



■■■■The Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of 
America in Congress assembled, re.solved, March 3, 1865 : 

"That the thanks of Congress are due, and are hereby tendered, to 
]\Ia.ior General George H. Thomas, and the officers and soldiers under his 
command, for their skill and dauntless courage, by which the rebel army 
under General Hood was signally defeated and driven from the State of 
Tennessee." 

The General Assembly of the State of Tennessee resolved, November 
2, 1865: 

" That the thanks of the General Assembly, in their own name and in 
the name of the people of the State of Tennessee, be presented to Major 
General George H. Thomas, and the officers and soldiers under his com- 
mand, for his wise and spirited, and their brave and patriotic conduct, in the 
battle of Nashville, in defense of the capital of the State, in December, 1864, 
and that a gold medal be struck in commemoration of the great and decisive 
event, and be presented to him." 

This magnificent gold medal, having General Thomas" bust on the 
obverse, and on the reverse the State Capitol, with the motto, "I will hold 
the town till we starve," was presented to him, with imposing ceremonies, on 
the second anniversary of the battle, at Nashville, Tenn. 



50 Life and Character of 

ton, D. C, in the case of Brigadier and Brevet Major Gteneral 
A. B. Dyer, Chief of Ordnance, from November 9, 1868, to May 
15, 1869; en route and in command of the Military Division of 
the Pacific, from May 15, 1869, to Marcli 28, 1870, the date of hia 
death. 

The above is taken from the records of this office. 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Adjutant General. 
A. Gr. Office, April 7, 1870. 



H, 



G-eneral Orders") Headquarters op the Army, ^ 



r Adjutant General's Office, , 

No. 34. ) Washington, March, 29, 1879. ) 

It has become the painful duty of the General to announce to 
the Army the death of one of our most exalted generals, George 
H. Thomas, who exj^ired last evening, at half-past seven, in San 
Francisco, California. 

There is no need to turn to the archives to search for his his- 
tory, for it is recorded in almost every page during the past ten 
years; but his classmate and comrade owes him a personal tribute, 
in which he knows every member of the Army shares. General 
Thomas entered the Militarj' Academy in the class of 1836; 
graduated in 1840, and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, 
Third Artillery, and sent to Florida. He served with his regiment 
continuousl}' until December 24, 1853, w^hen he became a Captain, 
having been particularly distinguished at Monterey and Buena 
Yista, Mexico. On the 12th of May, 1855, he was appointed to 
the Second Cavalry as Major, and served with that regiment con- 
tinuously until he became its Colonel on the 3d of May, 1861. The 
great civil war found him at his post, true and firm, amidst the ter- 
rible pressure he had encountered by reason of his birthplace — Vir- 
ginia; and President Lincoln commissioned him as a Brigadier 



General George H. Thomas. 51 

General of Volunteers, and sent him to Kentucky. There, too, 
his services were constant and eminent in the highest degree. 
He won the first battle in the West, at Mill Spring, Kentucky, and, 
from first to last, without a day's or an hour's intermission, he was 
at his post of duty, rising steadily and irresistibly^ through all the 
grades to the one he held as Major General of the Eegular Army 
at the time of his death. At Shiloh, Corinth, Perryville, Stone 
Eiver, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, and Nashville, he ful- 
filled the pi-oudest hopes of his ardent friends, and, at the close of 
the war. General George H. Thomas stood in the very front rank 
of our war generals. 

The General has known General Thomas intimately since 
they sat as boys on the same bench, and the quality in him, which 
he holds up for the admiration and example of the young, is his 
complete and entire devotion to duty. Though sent to Florida, to 
Mexico, to Texas, to Arizona, when duty there was absolute ban- 
ishment, he went cheerfully, and never asked a personal favor, ex- 
emption, or leave of absence. In battle he never wavered. Firm, 
and of full faith in his cause, he knew it would prevail, and he 
never sought advancement of rank or honor at the expense of any 
one. Whatever he earned of these were his own, and no one dis- 
putes his fame. The very impersonation of honesty, integrity, 
and honor, he will stand to us as the beau ideal of the soldier 
and gentleman. 

Though he leaves no child to bear his name, the Old Army of 
the Cumberland, numbered by tens of thousands, called him father, 
and will weep for him in tears of manly grief. 

His wife, who cheered him with her messages of love in the 
darkest hours of war, will mourn him now in sadness, chastened 
by the sympathy of a whole country. 

The last sad rites due him as a man and soldier will be paid 
at Troy, New York, on the arrival of his remains, and of his 
family, and all his old comrades who can be present are invited 
there to share in the obsequies. 

At all military posts and stations the flag will be placed at 



52 General George H. Thomas. 

half staff, and fifteen minute-guns fired on the day after the re- 
ceipt of this order; and the usual badges of mourning will be 
worn for thirty days. 

By command of General Sherman : 

E. D. TOWNSEND, 

Adjutant General. 



I. 



JOINT RESOLUTION expressing the sympathy of Congress at the death 
of Major General George H. Thomas. 

Be it resolved by the Senate and Mouse of Bepresentatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Senate 
and House of Eepresentatives have heard with deep regret of the 
sudden decease of Major General George H. Thomas, endeared 
to the country by a series of unbroken, patriotic services during a 
period of thirty years. 

Sec. 2. And be it further resolved, That his distinguished 
career in the defense of his country against foreign and domestic 
enemies, his never faltering faith and zeal in the maintenance of 
the Union and the integrity of the Government, and his stern 
execution of every trust confided to him, constitute a record in 
life made memorable in death. 

Sec. 3. And be it further resolved, That the President of the 
Senate and the Speaker of the House are hereby authorized to 
make such ari'angements in connection with his obsequies as will 
attest the sympathy of Congress at this national bereavement. 

Approved, April 5, 1870. 



